Thursday, April 12, 2007

Not sports related, but I'm saddened today by the loss of one of the greatest American Novelists of all-time. Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at age 84, after suffering brain injuries from a recent fall at his home in Manhattan.

Vonnegut's books have always been among the most enjoyable I've ever read, and they always got you thinking. He was anti-war, anti-religion, anti-almost everything other than thinking for yourself, but it didn't really matter if you agreed or disagreed, the way he wrote entertained and at least got you thinking.

My favorite book of his is still Hocus Pocus, likely because it's the first book of his I read (thanks Chad) and it really opened me up to him and his style. I highly, highly recommend however, anyone who hasn't read Slaughterhouse Five to stop whatever you're doing and start reading it immediately.

Vonnegut's main character in many of his books, Kilgore Trout, was in many ways Vonnegut's representation of himself. In the novel TimeQuake, Vonnegut's last, he states that Trout died at age 84. Vonnegut himself was 84 when he died yesterday.